Italian-American Style Meatballs

Eats by Vimbiso
May 5, 2019
2 min read

These meatballs are tender, perfectly seasoned, and amazingly delicious! They have a sweet and savoury taste. The fruit chutney in the meatball seasoning brings out the sweetness while the savoury taste is from the tomatoes in the meatball sauce. Believe me when I say you are in for a treat!

I was sitting on my desk, the other day, planning all the recipes that I am going to prepare for the coming weeks and I was telling myself that it wouldn't be a bad thing to make some meatballs.

As you have noticed, I have never uploaded a meatball recipe on my website and that's because I never make meatballs. I have tried to make meatballs 3 times my whole life and they never turned out great on all occasions. It's either they would not maintain the ball-like shape and fall apart or I would over-cook them. I know...sad. I felt some type of way about that and I just never made meatballs again buuuut guess what? I made some delicious meatballs on Friday for dinner. I went for it, I watched a couple of YouTube tutorial videos and learned from the best.

I realized that there is a technique to keep the meatballs round and firm since that was my issue. The trick is, is to put enough breadcrumbs as the crumbs will hold the meat firm and to also roll the balls into egg-like shapes, not round; the meatballs will settle in round as they bake. That's it, how easy was that?

With all the being said, folks, do not let fear and discouragement stop you from achieving great things (I am so serious, these meatballs were amazingly delicious). All I am saying is go for IT, and when you don't succeed, try again; the good thing is you have experience so you will know how to go about things the next time round. I am so proud of myself, I am happy, & I am doing the things.

Do yourself a favour and not give up! That's all folks, let's get to the recipe!

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 50 minutes

Servings: 13 meatballs

Ingredients:

200g ground/minced beef

For the meatball seasoning

1 egg

1 1/4 cup bread crumbs

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon fruit chutney

1 teaspoon parsley

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

For the sauce

2 teaspoons butter

1 chopped onion

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 cup tomato paste

2 tablespoons tomato sauce

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

For Garnish

Parsley/Cilantro

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

For the meatball seasoning, combine all of the ingredients and mix well.

Add the minced beef to the mixture and mix until the minced beef has blended in.

Take a spoonful of the mixture and roll into a ball. Place in a lightly greased oven-safe tray.

Bake for 25 minutes.

For the sauce, saute the onion in butter until translucent, whisk together the rest of the ingredients until well-combined. Pour into the onions and let the sauce simmer for 7 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Turn off heat then add the baked meatballs in the sauce pan as you coat them with the sauce.